Controlling mechanism for record-card-controlled statistical machines



Oct. 4, 1932. Q (:AMPBELL 1,880,413

CONTROLLING MECHANISM FOR RECORD ARD CONTROLLED STATISTICAL MACHINES Filed D90. 17, ;926

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Patented Oct; 4, 1932 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CHARLES CAMPBELL, OF LONDON, ENGLAND, ASSIGNOR TO THE TABUL ATING MACHINE COMPANY, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., A CORPORATION OF N EW J CONTROLLING MECHANISM FOR RECORD-CARD-CONTROLLED STATISTICAL MACHINEQ Application filed December 17, 1926, S rial No.

Hitherto in such controlling means it has been customary to employ what is known as a card-lever, which is a pivoted canilever held by a spring in the path of the cards and moved 'mechanically'by the cards into a new position, thereby closing or opening a. switch or switches or bringing about some other controlling operation.

It has been found that there is a limit to the number of switches which can be operated satisfactoril I by such a card-lever, as the resistance o ered by the lever to the passage of the cards is unduly increased, and there is a risk of injury to the card. Moreover, the card-lever and its mounting occupies an undesirable amount of space in the width of the card, thus reducing its capacity. a

One of the chief objects of the presen invention is to replace the card-lever by a controlling device which is without thesedisadvantages.

' According to this invention a card-operat'ed controlling device includes a pair of electric contacts located in the path of the Y record-cards and constructed and arranged to be separated by the record-cards to break a 155,538, and in Great Britain January 9, 1926.

fact it is preferred to employ a pair of contacts identical with the card-reading electrical contacts which co-operate with the holes in the card, these extra contacts being located to register with that part of the card which lies between one of the extreme columns of hole-positions and theiadjacent lateral edge of the card. Thus the whole width of the card is available for record-perforations. V

In order to avoid the formation of arcs at the card-contacts, and the consequent risk of injury thereto and to the cards, a shunt is provided across the card-contacts 'which shunt contains an automatically operated.

switch timed to close before each card leaves the said contacts and to open just afterthe next succeeding card has separated the contacts.

Referring to the'accompanying drawing:

Figure 1 is a circuit-diagram of a machine embodying the invention, and

Figure 2 is a timing-diagram.

The motor circuit 10 contains stop-keys 11,

12 and a starting-key 13 of the usual form.

One of the stop-keys is manually controlled,

and the other is operated automatically by the descending support for the cards, which have passed" through the machine when this support reaches its limit of downward movement. The starting-key'is shunted through a holding relay 14 and the shunt contains the contacts 15 of a motor-control relay bridged by an automatically operated switch" 16 timed to close when the No. 3 hole-position of a wHollerith card is at the reading-brushes and to open'when a point .on the next card between N o. 9 and No. 8 positions is at the reading brushes, asshown in Figure 2.

It should be mentioned that the cards are fed to the brushes in such a way that the holepositions pass the brushes in theor der 9, 8 p

. 2 1 0. a Upori depressing the starting-key the holding relay contacts 14v close and if the starting .key is released the running of the motor TM will depend upon the combined operation of the motorcontrol relay 15 and the switch 16 and if the contacts 15 organs relay open, the motor circuit' will be bibken at a point I between positions9 and 8 when the switch holepositions.

16 opens.

v The winding 15 of the motor control relay is in what will be termed an intermediate circuit 17 which contains the Contacts 18 of an invertedtrelay (that is to say one which "the trailing edge of each card leaves the brushes and to open when No. 8 hole-position on the next card is at the brushes.

The winding 18 of the inverted relay is in a circuit 22a, 22b and 220 termed the cardcontact circuit, which includes a pair of contacts 23, 23 arranged in-the path of the card near one of its lateral edges and between the said edge and the adjacent column of Conveniently these contacts may be identical in form with the card-reading brushes 24 and contact rings 21 there being a row of forty-six such brushes and contact rings, forty-five 'of which are used as card-reading contacts and the forty-sixth 23, which does not register with any holes in the cards, is used for the purposes of the present invention. The arrangement of the brushes and contact rings is described in British patent specification No. 23,566 of 1914.

These card-contaczs are bridged by a shunt 25 containing an a omatic switch 26, which opens just after the leading-edge of each card reaches the brushes and closes at the 5 hole-position of the same card.

It will be appreciated that the intermediate circuit 17 must be maintained closed in order to keep the motor running; if this circuit 1s broken the motor will stop.

Normally, therefore, it is necessary for continued running that the contacts 18 of the inverted relay should be .closed (or if they open, that the shunt 21 across it and the switch 20 should be closed as an alternative path) during the time that the switch 16 is open. When the first card of a series separates the controlling card-contacts 23, 23 the inverted relay winding 18 is de-energized and its contacts 18 close. The switch 20 is still closed at this time, and the switch 19 closes immediately afterwards. The intermediate circuit 17 is thereby completed, the motor control relay magnet 15 is closed, and the motor circuit 10 is maintained closed as already explained.

' The holding relay magnet 21in the inter mediate circuit will close its contacts 216 and close the shunt 21 and the said intermediate circuit will then be under thejoint control of the inverted relay contacts 18 (together withth-e switch 20 in series therewith) and'the switch 19.

' When thetrailing edge of any card leaves the controlling card-contacts 23, 23 the 'latter come together and complete the cardand the motor would stop were it not for the fact that the switch 16 has not yet opened. Before this switch opens the. cardcontactsare separated by the. next card, the switch 19 closes, the shunt 21 across the switch '20 and the inverted relay contacts are closed by the holding relay 21 and the intermediate circuit is re-established, and remains so notwithstanding the subsequent opening of the switch 20.

If however no card appears as a consequence of the supply being exhausted the card-contacts 23, 23 remain closed (and the inverted relay contacts 18 remain open in consequence) and the closing of the switch 19 is therefore powerless to close the interme diate circuit 17 because the contacts 216 of the holding relay magnet 21 for the shunt 21 have not been closed. Consequently the motor-control relay contacts 15 will not be closed, and when the switch 16 opens the main relay winding will be (lo-energized and the motor will stop.

' The switch 20 plays no part in this operation, as will beappreciated, since it is in series with the inverted-relay contacts 18 and as the latter do not closeagain after the passage of the last cardthe intermediate circuit would remain broken in any case. Since the holding-relay contacts 14 open as soon as the switch 16 opens, the motor-circuit can only be re-established by depressing the starting key 13.

The machine will also stop on the passage of a stop-card. This stop-card has a narrow portion cut away from that one of its lateral edges which encounters the controlling cardcontacts, such cut-away portion extending from its leading-edge to the 5 hole-position. Thus when a stop-card is feed to the brushes the card-contacts 23, 23a will not be separated, the relay contacts 18 will remain open and the motor circuit will be broken a'salready explained, and the holding-relay con tacts 14 will open. 1 A

The brushes 24 are mounted on a common bar 24* and are supplied with current through the switch 19, 20 and theinverted relay-contacts 18 by means of awire 24. The brush23 is also carried by the bar 24' but is insulated therefrom. The current is takeii from the rings 24" by brushes 27 from which extend the usual counter-magnet cir- 'cuits 28. The counter-magnets are shown at 29, and this part of .the machine need not be described in detail as it is well known to "those skilled in the art to which the invention relates.

It will be appreciated that when the intermediate circuit is broken as hereinbefore described no current is supplied to the brushes 24. If this circuit is broken by the passage,-

holes w1ll not cause the counters to be op-f erated. I

The-motor T M drives, through gearing 30, the feed-rolls 31 which advancethe cards 32 past the brushes 24, the cards being fed to t e rolls one at a time from a stack 33 by means of a picker 34. A shaft 35, driven at the rate of one revolution per card cycle, carries the rotary components of the switches 16, 19, 20 and 26, and another shaft 36 carries the contact-rings 23 ,24. The gearing is shown in a-purely diagrammatic manner in Figured, no attempt having been made to represent the gear-rati correctly.

The circuits 10, 17, 2 a, 22?), 220, 25, 2,8 are all supplied through leads 37, 38 and a.

' to open before the card leaves the contacts switch 39 from'a source 40 of current.

The automatically-operated switches here- I inbefore referred to are preferably arranged in the form of one or more rotary disc distributors driven in synchronism with the cardfeeding means, each switch being provided by an arcuate distributor-segment of definite angular extent and position to make and break contact with a fixed brush .atthe required times.

with inserted bodies of glass or like material as described in the specification of my 00-- The distributors may be provided pending British Patent No. 269,622.

The diagram Figure 2 represents the timing of the various switches. .The'hole-positions and other points of referenceon the .card are shown extended horizontally and the times during which the various swltehes are closed. are represented by straight lines.

The letter D represents the position in which the leading edge of a card just separates the brushes from the contact-rings, and is theposition in which the machine stops. The letter B indicates a position just beyond the last or O hole-position on the card.

a It will be appreciated that the full current is never actually interrupted at the card-contacts by the leading-edge of a' record-card or the part of a stpp-card not cut away, because the switch 26 in parallel therewith has closed before the card-contacts are separated. This switch moreover is always closed at the time the card-contacts come together.

the card-contacts, and the edges of the cards are not liable to be damaged as they would be if" the tull current were interrupted at the card contacts. 7

I claim:

1. In a record card controlled statistical machine, acard operated controlling device Gonse V) quently, no appreciable arcs are formed at comprising a pair of electrical contacts arrangedin the pathfof record cards and arranged to be separated by the record cards to break a card contact circuit and to make con- 2. In a record controlled statistical machine, a'card operated controlling device comprising a pair of electrical contacts and arranged to control-aninverted relay the contacts of which arelin serial connection with a control relay the contacts of the latter being adapted to control the operation of the motor of the machine, and cam operated contacts in serial connection with the contacts of the inverted relay adapted to close after each card has separated the aforesaid card contacts and and permits them to close.

'3. The invention according to claim 2 wherein supplemental contacts are in series with the inverted relay contacts timed to open after the cam operated contacts have closed ''and to remain open until. near the end of the card cycle. l

{1. In a record card controlled statistical vmachineincluding card reading contacts for analyzing the perforations of successively fed cards, a card operated controlling device adapte'dto control an inverted relay-the con tacts of which are'in serial connection with a otor control relay in a supplemental circuit, cam contacts in serial connection with said inverted relay contacts, said cardreading contacts being in serial connection with the inverted relay contacts and the cam contacts "separated by therecord cards to break the control circuit, and'to make contact to complete thecontrol circuit when a suitably shaped stop card is present and contacts in 5 the circuit which controls said feeding means opened and closed in'accordance withthe opening and closing of the control circuit, respectively.

6. In a record cardcontrolled statistical 1 machine comprising means for successively feeding record cards to an analyzing mech- "anism, a card testing device comprising a pair of oppositely disposed testing elements adapted to be'physically contacted by opposite sides of the record cards to provide for arelative separation of said testing elements,

means whereby the continuity of the operation of'the card feeding means is dependent .upon the relative separation of the testing 2 elements by a series of successive cards, andfmeans'comprising machine operated contacts for permitting the continuity of the machine to the end of each cycle irrespective of the closure of the testing elements by the absenc of the card fed during that cycle.

I 7. In a record controlled statistical machine comprising means for successively feeding to analyzingebrushes a series of perforated records the operation of which is efiected independently of the presence of said cards, a con- I trol circuit (17) for controlling said means,

. machine operated contacts (19), and a pair of electrical contacts (23) cooperating with opposite sides of successively fed cards and separated by the record cards to close the control circuit (17') which is retained closed by the closure of the machine operated contacts (1 9) and to make contact whenno cards "are present to open the control circuit-irre 4 spective of the closure of the machine operated contacts at a certain point in the machine cycle. In testimony whereof I aflix my signature. CHARLES CAMPBELL. 

